Making Government More Efficient

The Government Mechanic

Episode 16 closes out Season 2. Creator and host Dr. Lynn Sandra Kahn and co-host Kathleen Monahan, management consultant and strategic planner, talk about making government more efficient. They start with the graphic labelled Reinventing Government: 1992 to 2000 and then the Reinventing Government: Transformation Roadmap.

The Roadmap is an artist’s drawing of a vision for reinvention, a mission to deliver on the three goals and pathways to rebuild public trust in government (see Episode 14, for reinvention strategic plan and implementation roadmap). Kahn asserts: “We are starting here because we believe in the importance of clearly and visually communicating the essence of government-wide change in policies and organization.”

The drawing shows the 4 core questions of any transformation: where are we now, where are we going, how will we get there, and what will we measure. Kahn emphasizes “Get a vision statement that is one line, less than a sentence; and a Mission statement describing the true purpose of the agency as one maybe two sentences. It has to fit on a coffee mug!

The graphic includes Goals — what you want to accomplish – and Strategies – the priority actions. Measures are the numbers that tell you whether you accomplished your goals and priorities. What you measure is what you get.

Episode 16 closes out Season 2. Season 3 begins on Tuesday February 4 with a series of 5 episodes on the failures of family law, family court, foster care, medical kidnapping and parental alienation. Episodes 17 to 22 come with a warning: these are heartbreaking stories mostly hidden from view.